There is always a need to improve temperature regulating systems for containers such as tanks and the contents therein. Systems for regulating or controlling temperatures of containers are used to heat or cool the contents of containers. Exemplary contents that are to be cooled and/or heated during storage and processing include, for example, fermentation, blending, storage, brewing mash, crush, batch, cooling, chilling, and cold-stabilization of wine, juice, vinegar, syrups, and other beverage production. For example, during a fermentation process of making wine, thermal energy or heat is generated. However, to produce a quality wine, the wine is ideally maintained at a specific temperature range during the fermentation process. Accordingly, the temperature of the wine must be regulated to control the fermentation process thereby increasing the likelihood of a production of a quality wine. However, the systems for regulating and controlling the temperature of a wine process, such as fermentation, are inadequate.
An exemplary prior art system for cooling wine is presented to discuss inadequacies of the system. FIG. 1 illustrates a prior art cooling system 2 for a stainless steel wine tank 9 which includes a cooling jacket 3, for example, a glycol cooling jacket wherein glycol is provided through the cooling jacket 3 as a liquid coolant. These cooling systems 2 are expensive, and therefore, only 25% to 50% of a sidewall surface area of tank 9 is covered by an exemplary prior art cooling jacket 3.
During cooling of a wine mass, convection currents in the wine mass are an important factor contributing to maintaining a uniform temperature throughout the wine mass. Without the capability of maintaining a uniform temperature throughout the wine mass, control or regulation of the temperature of the wine mass is difficult to achieve. A study has determined that the use of cooling systems 2 create significant temperature stratification regions within the wine mass. For example, using a cooling jacket 3 over a third of the sidewall surface area of tank 9 as illustrated in FIG. 1, a region 6 of cool wine located adjacent and below cooling jacket 3 develops that is sandwiched between two regions 4 and 7 of warm wine. Warm wine regions 4 and 7 are located at the uppermost and lowermost locations, respectively, of tank 9. The temperature stratification in the wine mass develops because region 7 of warm wine exerts an upward pressure or force 600 against an equal and opposite downward pressure or force 602 exerted by region 6 of cool wine establishing a temperature stratification boundary 5. With the development of this temperature stratification boundary 5, convection currents cease to flow. Moreover, convection currents do not influence region 4 of warm wine because this warmer wine tends to “float” on top of region 6 of cool wine. Without the flow of convection currents, uniform temperature of the wine mass is difficult to achieve or be maintained. Without uniform temperatures, the capability to control and regulate the temperature of the wine fails along with the opportunity to optimize wine quality.
Moreover, a temperature monitoring device 8 is routinely placed just below the cooling jacket 3. Accordingly, the temperature monitoring device 8 monitors only one region of the wine mass, and that region includes the coolest wine in the tank 9, that is, region 6. Consequently, reading the temperature monitoring device 8 would not indicate there is a temperature stratification problem developing in the wine mass to be dealt with, and therefore, regions 4 and 7 may be out of the optimal temperature range for production of quality wine affecting the quality of the entire wine mass.
There is a need to improve temperature regulating, controlling and adjusting systems for containers such as tanks and the contents therein.